Tag Archives: history

Deja Vu, Dien Bien Phu?

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US War Dead in Iraq Exceeds Early Vietnam Years
By David Morgan

"PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) – The U.S. death toll in Iraq (news – web sites) has surpassed the number of American soldiers killed during the first three years of the Vietnam War, the brutal Cold War conflict that cast a shadow over U.S. affairs for more than a generation."

Will Iraq become the next Vietnam? More US soldiers have been killed in the two years we've been in Iraq than in the first three years of combat in Vietnam. Will this war end similarly.

There are definitely differences. First of all, we have nearly tens times as many soldiers in Iraq than we had in Vietnam in 1964. By percentage, more of today's soldiers are living. Also, there isn't a major force facing us this time. Guerrillas, while deadly, do not an army make. Unless a nation with a sizeable military joins the Hussein loyalists, Iraq is unlikely to become another Vietnam. Furthermore, if it did, we'd be more like France than ourselves this time. International forces would likely get involved as we did 40 years ago. However, I think the international community lacks the resolve and pig-headed stubbornness that drove us then.

Anyhow, I don't expect to see a casualty explosion like experienced after 1965. If this conflict does get out of hand, I hope the soldiers receive better treatment than their predecessors.

Soda Fountain

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I went to this place for the first time on Saturday. It’s an old apothecary/soda shop. The interior is authentic 20’s art deco. The family atmosphere is great and so is the ice cream. You owe it to yourself to check it out. 🙂

A Scoop of History

Klavon’s Pharmacy opened in 1920 and was a social fixture in the Strip District for 59 years. The pharmacist dispensed advice and kibitzing along with tonics, salves and prescriptions. The pharmacist’s wife presided over the penny candy counter, the greeting cards and the soda fountain, not to mention the many romances that blossomed there.

Each summer James and Mary Klavon’s eight young grandchildren came for vacations and were serious but gleeful helpers in the store. This American tableau continued until 1979 when the pharmacist passed away. The family closed the doors and sadly ended a chapter of an era.

For 20 years, the doors and windows of the old building at the corner of Penn Avenue and 28th Street were boarded up. Last year, the Klavons’ oldest grandson, Ray Klavon, set into motion a lifelong dream. He blew away the dust, moved out the pharmacy counter, cleared the shelves and added the bare necessities for accommodating the ’90s. When he reopened the doors to the newly named Klavon’s Ice Cream Parlor in January of this year, he unsealed a time capsule.

Family Tree…er…Chain

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This seems like a cool tradition. Maybe I could start something similar with my family.

Family Continues 87-Year Chain Letter
By RUSS BYNUM

“SAVANNAH, Ga. – The fat manilla envelope arrives in Doug Pletcher’s mailbox every year, stuffed with letters and photographs from uncles and cousins of some 24 branches of his family tree scattered from Florida to California. “

Cymry a’r Wasgar

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As a person of Welsh descent, an appreciator of dying tongues, and a supporter of several underdogs, this is a matter of some importance to me.

Trouble in the Motherland:
Impending Death of Welsh as a Community Language

“According to the evidence submitted to the United Nations on May 27 – 31, 2002 in Geneva, Wales is currently experiencing a cultural crisis of such severity that they fall under the United Nations resolution Article 27 of The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. This protects threatened minority languages and cultures. The problem is that during the past 200 years, England has never bothered to develop this vassal past agriculture and mining.”

One Tough Man

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Does this make Kennedy a tougher guy than FDR?

Files depict JFK’s life of pain

US President John F Kennedy took up to eight different medications a day to deal with the terrible pain resulting from numerous ailments, newly disclosed files have shown.

America’s youngest president was suffering from more conditions, was in greater pain and was taking more medications than the public knew at the time, according to a new biography to be published next year.